Network Working Group The Internet Society
Request for Comments: 2339 Sun Microsystems
Category: Informational May 1998
An Agreement Between the Internet Society,
the IETF, and Sun Microsystems, Inc.
in the matter of NFS V.4 Protocols
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This Request for Comments records an agreement between Sun
Microsystems, Inc. and the Internet Society to permit the flow of
Sun's Network File System specifications into the Internet Standards
process conducted by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Note:
This RFC is NOT a standard. It is an official public record of an
agreement between Sun Microsystems and the Internet Society. The
referenced RFCs 1094 dated March 1989 ("NFS: Network File System
Protocol Specification") and 1813 dated June 1995 ("NFS Version 3
Protocol Specification") are not attached to the document below, but
are incorporated by reference.
ISOC & Sun Informational [Page 1]RFC 2339 ISOC / Sun agreement on NFS May 1998
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE INTERNET SOCIETY,
THE IETF, AND SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.
IN THE MATTER OF NFS V.4 PROTOCOLS
This Agreement is made this 3rd day of March, 1998 by and between Sun
Microsystems, Inc. ("Donor") and the Internet Society. In
consideration of the mutual covenants and conditions set forth below,
the parties hereto agree as follows:
1. License Grant. For good and valuable consideration, receipt and
sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, and solely for the
purpose specified in Paragraph 2 below, Donor hereby grants to the
Internet Society ("Licensees" which, for the purposes of this
Agreement, shall include the Internet Engineering Task Force
("IETF"), the IETF Secretariat, and their respective members,
officers, employees, contractors and participating individuals) a
cost-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide right and license
under any copyrights owned or otherwise licensable by Donor, under
any Sun patent rights that are essential to practice the
Specification, and any other Sun intellectual property rights to use,
reproduce, distribute, perform, display and prepare derivative works
of the Specification, and to authorize others to do so. For the
purposes of this Agreement, "Specification" means the technical
specification described more fully in Exhibit A, which Donor will
make available as the initial point for development of the
specification for NFS Version 4 as described hereunder, together with
any technical specifications based thereon developed by Licensees.
2. Statement of Purpose. The licenses granted in Section 1 are
granted for the sole purpose of seeking to make the Specification an
Internet standard.
3. Evolution of the Specification. Donor further grants to Licensees
a worldwide right and license to further evolve, develop and modify
the Specification for the purpose of making the Specification an
Internet Standard through the Internet Standardization Process (as
specified in RFC 2026); Donor may not grant a license involving the
Specification to any other party, including any standards group, that
would authorize such party to evolve, develop, modify or promote the
Specification as a standard. In particular, Donor acknowledges that
if it performs any evolution, development or modification of the
Specification outside of the Internet Standardization Process, that
this should be clearly indicated as being a non-standard development,
and that no reference to the Internet Standards Process is allowed
for any such Specification developed outside of the Internet
Standards Process.
ISOC & Sun Informational [Page 2]RFC 2339 ISOC / Sun agreement on NFS May 1998
4. Non-Confidentiality. Donor hereby acknowledges that Licensees
assume no obligation to maintain any confidentiality with respect to
the Specification licensed hereunder. Licensees acknowledge that any
rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by Donor. Donor
represents that, to the best of its knowledge, there are no
infringement claims against the Specification.
5. Future License. Donor hereby acknowledges that Licensees have no
duty to publish or otherwise use or disseminate the Specification,
including, in particular, an obligation to raise the Specification to
the Internet standards-track. Provided that the Specification is
elevated to "Proposed Standard" level within 24 months of the
execution of this Agreement, Donor hereby agrees to license the
Specification to others at no charge and otherwise under
substantially similar terms as those granted to Licensee herein (with
the exception that such use of the Specification by such Licensees
shall be for purposes of implementing and complying with the Standard
rather than for making the Specification an Internet Standard), so
long as such licensees of the Specification implement and comply with
the Internet standard. In the event the Specification is not
elevated to "Proposed Standard" level within 24 months of the
execution of this Agreement, then the license granted in Section 3 of
this agreement shall terminate.
6. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. THE SPECIFICATION IS PROVIDED TO
LICENSEES "AS IS", AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. MERCHANTABILITY
AND NONINFRINGEMENT ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED.
7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT WILL DONOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY
LOST REVENUE, PROFITS OR DATA, OR FOR DIRECT, SPECIAL, INDIRECT,
CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, HOWEVER CAUSED AND
REGARDLESS OF THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY
TO USE THE SPECIFICATION, EVEN IF DONOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
8. Acknowledgment. Donor agrees to permit Licensees to use Donor's
name and address to indicate the original source of the
Specification.
9. Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement
between the parties concerning its subject matter, and supersedes all
prior written or oral agreements and discussions. All additions or
modifications to this agreement must be made in writing and must be
signed by an authorized representative of each party. If any term or
condition of this Agreement is declared void or unenforceable as
provided herein or by a court of competent jurisdiction, the
remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. The
ISOC & Sun Informational [Page 3]
RFC 2339 ISOC / Sun agreement on NFS May 1998
parties agree to comply strictly with all applicable export control
laws and regulations. Where no U.S. Federal law governs, this
agreement will be governed by the law of the State of California
without reference to its conflict of laws provision.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Agreement to
be executed by their duly authorized representatives.
Signature /S/ Rich Green Date 3 March 1998
Name Rich Green
Title VP Solaris
SunSoft, Inc.
Signature /S/ Donald M. Heath Date 6 March 1998
Name Donald M. Heath
Title President and CEO of the Internet Society
Exhibit A The specifications embodied in RFCs 1094 and 1813, minus
the portions of RFCs 1094 and 1813 that assume that NFS Version 2 and
Version 3 operate over XDR and ONC RPC.* The control of ONC RPC
program number 100003 (NFS) for the purpose of generating Version
numbers 4 and onward.
*Note: ISOC already has a license to use XDR and ONC RPC (see IETF
RFC 1790), and thus may determine whether or not to create an NFS
Version 4 that uses XDR and/or ONC RPC.
Security Considerations
Since this document records an agreement rather than describes a
technology security is not directly effected but, that said, one of
the aims of an IETF NFS working group should be to ensure that a
standards track NFS protocol has adequate security.
Editor's Address
Scott Bradner
Harvard University
1350 Mass Ave. Rm 876
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: +1 617 495 3864
EMail: sob@harvard.edu
ISOC & Sun Informational [Page 4]RFC 2339 ISOC / Sun agreement on NFS May 1998
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
ISOC & Sun Informational [Page 5]
